Dogged till the End

The Bali Daily (The Jakarta Post) reports that provincial officers from the Agricultural Quarantine Department at Bali’s westernmost port of Gilimanuk euthanized dozens of dogs on Friday, April 18, 2014, seized from passengers attempting to smuggle the animals into Bali.

It is illegal to smuggle live animals and poultry into Bali. Animals are subject to confiscation and those involved in the smuggling to fines and jail sentences.

Some 31 dogs, inlcuding a Siberian Husky, Pomeranian and Lacy were euthanized by lethal injection when efforts were unsuccesful to contact their owners, who might have been permitted to send them back to Java had they come forward to accept responsibility for their crime.

Quarantine authorities put a live value of US$4,372 on the animals they destroyed.

Two Persian cats and dozens of birds seized by custom’s officers were returned to their owners outside Bali.

Ida Bagu Eka Ludra, head of the law enforcement division at the Quarantine Department explained: “But no one legally owns the dogs. If, when we confiscate animals, the owners can show us their legal documents within 24 hours, we return the animals. We don’t want to take any risks because rabies has been an epidemic on the island.”

The import and export of animals capable to spreading rabies and other diseases has been banned by law and provincial regulation since 2008.